Adding Life to an Image.

There are times when the scene before you looks much better than the picture you just took.  Sometimes it is an issue of field of  view.  Other times your camera isn't able to capture the dynamic range of the scene as well as your eyes and brain can.  This scene looked flat and uninteresting straight from camera.

This is the merged HDR file.  You'll note the numerous dust spots in the sky.  I realized after this trip that my camera was in desperate need of a good cleaning.  Processing of the merged file consisted of cleaning up all the dust spots, minor straightening, and running through PixelBender's Oil Paint filter.

The oil paint filter is my go to when I'm looking for a more abstract look.  It has several sliders that are very useful in determining how you want the final image to look. 

I knew from the start that this would end up being more of a digital painting than a photograph.  The term digital painting is used very loosely when it comes to this because there are people with the talent to actually paint a scene like this instead of applying a filter.

With an abundance of dead space in the sky it felt like the perfect opportunity to add a poem or verse. Choosing Psalm 119:105 was obvious as the lighthouse provides guidance for ships.

By choosing to stray from reality a little I felt that punching up the colors wouldn't take away from the overall image. 

Technical data for this image. Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 180mm, iso 200, median exposure 0.8 seconds @ f/14.0

The American Adventure

The American Adventure is a long-standing iconic attraction at EPCOT.  Add in the Voices of Liberty performance pre-show and you have a recipe for an incredible way to travel from founding to today.  The show itself is a combination of video and audio animatronics.  The music throughout fits perfectly with the different times and scenes.

Adding to my love of this attraction is the memories associated with it.  I grew up making trips to Disney World and we always made time to get there early and listen to the Voices of Liberty.  My Dad was especially fond of this attraction because of his great love for history and this country.  The final track, Golden Dream, was one of my Dad's favorite songs.  It has also become a favorite of mine.

I love how Disney has combined pivotal times in America's history with original dialogue to tell the story of the formation of our nation.

Washington and some of his men at Valley Forge.

The story of a family where the two brothers fight on opposite sides during the civil war. Another great song during this section (Two Brothers).

President Roosevelt at what would become Yosemite National Park.

Men discussing the hardships of the Great Depression.

The great Chief Joseph when he famously said he would fight no more.

Representation of Rosie the Riveter as women increasingly took over jobs previously held by men during WWII.

Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain help bring the show to a close standing on the torch atop the Statue of Liberty.

Fireworks Technique Update

One of my great fascinations is fireworks. For most of my life I have enjoyed them as most people do.  Now my focus on the shows is capturing the explosions with a camera.  In a previous post I talked about equipment and technique.  Since that last post my family and I have returned to Walt Disney World with new equipment and methods to try out.

My wonderful wife purchased a new camera for me and my mother gave me two Neutral Density (ND) filters.  ND filters have been used for a long time by landscape photographers to get that silky, dreamy water everyone likes.  Until I read the Disney Photography Blog's ebook on fireworks technique the thought of using a ND filter for fireworks hadn't crossed my mind.

Using a ND filter for fireworks has its good and bad side.  First the good side.  Decreasing the amount of light that reaches the sensor allows you to keep the shutter open for longer periods.  This results in more bursts per frame.  My last post on fireworks (which is linked at the top of this post) has examples without the ND filter.  Most have just a few bursts in them. 

This first shot was during the villain scene in the Wishes show.  With a .9 (8x) ND filter I was able to keep the shutter open for the entire scene.  Exif for this shot: D800, 24-70mm 2,8 @ 31mm, iso 100, f/9.0, exposure 60 seconds.  In comparison my best shots from last trip were averaging just a few seconds at a much smaller aperture.

Now the downside to using a ND filter.  Since the exposures are now much longer the number of shots you can get per show are greatly reduced.  Less shots means a smaller chance for getting a great shot and less opportunity to experiment with different settings.  The great part about experimenting on your fireworks photos at Disney is they have fireworks pretty much every night and sometimes twice in the same evening.

My wife's favorite part of the Wishes show.  30 seconds @ f/9.0

Finale from Wishes. 21 seconds @ f/9.0

Illuminations finale. 32 seconds @ f/8.0

Portrait Workflow

While editing several sets of images lately I thought it may be interesting to describe my workflow from camera import to Lightroom export.  While the process does vary a little from portrait to portrait, there is a basic order that I use to process images.

First is importing into Lightroom 4.  As soon as I get home from a shoot the images are uploaded onto my desktop and an external drive as backup.  If they are for hire they get organized inside my business folder by type and name. 

After importing the total number of images are narrowed down.  If there are multiples of the same pose/group I look at the 100% image for expression, eyes, and pose.  Any pose that just doesn't look right gets deleted.  The main point is to narrow the session to the best examples and not overwhelm the viewer with choices. 

The next step is basic white balance correction, minor exposure adjustments, and straightening.  Most of the time I shoot on the Auto White Balance setting because the images are shot in RAW format.  RAW gives me the flexibility to adjust white balance in post instead of in camera.  Sometimes the exposure, highlights, or shadows need minor adjustments before I bring the image into Photoshop for more intensive editing.  Finally for this step is straightening the image if the camera wasn't lined up the way I wanted it.

From Lightroom the image then goes into Photoshop for the majority of the edits.  First step here is to duplicate the original layer so if there are major issues I always have that base layer to start again.  The duplicate layer is used to fix any skin blemishes or other minor items.  Then if it would help the image the healed layer is duplicated and taken into one or more Topaz Labs plugins.  Adjust 5 is great for color and detail and Clean 3 is great for skin softening.  After all edits in Photoshop are complete the image is sharpened and imported back into Lightroom.

Final tweaks are done in Lightroom before either export or upload to Smugmug.  Of course my workflow differs from portraits to landscapes but the same basic steps are there.  Later I will do a post on skin softening and what has really worked for me.  For now here is a before and after from Ben and Karissa's wedding.

The original image was a little flat for my taste so I used one of Topaz Adjust 5's presets to add a little color and increase detail.  Minor skin smoothing and hot spot removal. Flattened the back of Ben's vest that was bulging out.  Sharpened for final output.

 Final output.  This is the first time I've posted a before and after so you will have to let me know if this kind of post is helpful or not.

Recent Portrait Work

One of the things I am going to add to my blog is recent sittings.  I often post personal projects because they are fun.  While those posts allow me to talk about a variety of topics they often don't showcase work that is done for clients.  The first post about a recent sitting was about a local musician beginning his doctoral studies (full post available here). 

Today's post includes a picture from my niece's second birthday shoot.  She is such a cute little girl and a joy to photograph.  She follows directions well and loves the camera.  I'm very fortunate to be in a position to capture these moments in time for members of my family.

For this image she was sitting on a little rocking chair in front of the small waterfall at my mom's house.  We were playing peek-a-boo and she was pretending to be a little shy.  I love the innocent look on her face and the direct contact of her eyes and the camera.  It was hard to change positions or want to move on because she was having fun and giving lots of different smiles.

Some technical info on this shot.  My SB-800 was aimed into a Photek Soflighter 2 with diffusion cloth above and to the left of Natalie's position.  I paired my 70-200mm with the D700 with a large aperture to make sure the background was out of focus.

Natalie has a great little smile.  Quite often now she sticks her tongue out the side and I think it makes it even cuter. 

For the majority of the shoot I was laying on my stomach to get closer to her level.  It is an easy way to make your photographs of children that much better.  For more tips check out my previous blog post, Taking Better Pictures of Children.

Camera Modes Explained

After a recent Facebook poll I decided to post about the different modes you may see on your camera and what your camera does when you select each mode.  Not all cameras have the same modes so if there is one I don't cover that you would like more information on please comment below and I will see what I can do to help you out.

Automatic

As the name implies the camera does all the thinking for you and determines the shutter speed, aperture, flash,  and sometimes ISO for you.  Some cameras allow you to turn off or adjust the automatic ISO feature.  The camera doesn't know what you are trying to achieve so it does what it thinks is necessary to get a proper exposure.  My belief is that you should always be thinking when you are taking a picture and as such you should probably stay away from the automatic mode. 

Program

This is similar to Automatic and is a good mode for beginners.  Unlike Automatic, once the camera determine what settings should be used, you may then make adjustments to what you think they should be.

Aperture Priority

With this mode you are starting to make your way towards total control over the image.  You select the aperture (which controls depth of field) and the camera will determine a shutter speed for a correct exposure.  For example if you are taking a portrait and want the background out of focus you would select a wider aperture (lower number).

Shutter Priority

This is the reverse of Aperture Priority.  Here you select the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the aperture to give you a proper exposure.  This is useful when you aren't picky about the aperture but you don't want the shutter speed to change.

Manual

Once you have learned the basics it is time to move into Manual Mode.  This gives you full control over ISO, aperture, shutter, and white balance. With complete control over all settings you can create whatever look you are envisioning.  After some practice you will discover times when certain situations can fool your camera's computer brain.  Using Manual will allow you to make adjustments to overcome those obstacles.

This image was shot in Aperture Priority and manual focus. I set the aperture at f/10 so the stem and buds would be in focus while the background would be out of focus.  Knowing that an aperture of f/10 would yield a shutter speed that would be difficult to hand hold I bumped the ISO up to 500 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. 

Musician Portraits

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of working with one of my favorite wedding couples for the second time.  Ben and Stephanie are so much fun to work with and be around.  Ben is currently beginning his doctoral studies at the U of M.  He contacted me about taking some head shots and detail shots of him and his instruments for his website.

I was thrilled to help him out and we had a lot of fun on the first half of our shoot.  We spent a couple hours shooting details and some shots of Ben with his instruments.  A special thanks to Stephanie for agreeing to be my stand-in assistant through the shoot.

Both his tenor and alto saxophones are incredibly interesting subjects.  I really hadn't realized how intricate they are until we were working and trying to decide what parts we wanted to highlight.  We could have easily spent several more hours focusing on all the little details.  Below are a few of the detail shots and one of my favorites of Ben with both of his instruments.